Archive for August 3, 2015

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London - For people living in a house with more than one storey, stairlifts or home elevators are often a necessity of life as they get older and find it harder to get up and down the stairs. Normal stairlifts have the disadvantage of being a permanent and visible addition to a staircase, while traditional home elevators are bulky and often impractical for most homes.
A company in England is...

Lancaster, NH - A man and a girl were killed and at least 22 people were injured Monday when a severe storm blew down a circus tent in northern New Hampshire, officials said.
State Fire Marshal William Degnan said at a briefing late Monday that the injured were taken to four regional hospitals. Their conditions were not immediately known.
The accident happened around 5:30 p.m. as the first...

Frankfurt - German carmakers BMW , Audi and Mercedes , will pay around 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) to buy Nokia's maps business, beating out high-tech rivals for location services seen as key to the future of self-driving cars.
Germany's three premium carmakers will hold equal stakes in the business, known as HERE, clubbing together to keep the assets away from Internet rivals such as...

Jerusalem - As Israel reels from the aftermath of the Jerusalem gay pride parade stabbing and prepares to lay to rest 16-year-old victim Shira Banki, one leader in the religious gay community says that preventing further attacks like this will require a huge change in the Israeli religious establishment.
Daniel Jonas, the chairperson of Havruta, an organization for the religious gay community...

Washington - One of Vice President Joe Biden's most vocal supporters joined the super PAC urging him to run for president Monday, as interest in Biden's political future spiked amid fresh signs that his aides are looking closely at a 2016 campaign.
Dick Harpootlian, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said he was writing a $10,000 check to the group Draft Biden, and was...

Washington - The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first prescription drug made through 3-D printing: a dissolvable tablet that treats seizures.
Aprecia Pharmaceuticals said Monday the FDA approved its drug Spritam for adults and children who suffer from certain types of seizures caused by epilepsy. The tablet is manufactured through a layered process via 3-D printing and dissolves...

New York - A Russian art dealer accused by Polish authorities of illegally acquiring an 18th-century painting stolen during World War II by the Nazis cannot be extradited from the United States, a Manhattan federal judge ruled on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the extradition case against Alexander Khochinskiy, 64, saying no evidence had been presented to show he knew when he...

New York - New York City health officials say seven people with Legionnaires' disease have died amid an outbreak that has sickened dozens more.
Health officials presented updated figures Monday at a public town hall meeting. They say there have been more than 80 reported diagnoses. They say of the 64 people hospitalized with the disease, 28 have been discharged.
The legionella bacteria...

Qatar - Gulf Arab states on Monday welcomed the nuclear deal negotiated between Iran and world powers but said they would like further assurances that the U.S. would help them counter increasing Iranian assertiveness in the region.
Speaking for the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, Qatar's top diplomat said Monday that the bloc had been impressed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's...

Honolulu - The U.S. military says it has successfully tested an interceptor that can shoot down ballistic missiles as well as airplanes.
The Missile Defense Agency said Monday the destroyer USS John Paul Jones tested the technology during a series of flight tests off the Hawaiian island of Kauai over the past week.
Raytheon Missile Systems spokeswoman Heather Uberuaga says the tests used a...

San Francisco - Macy's Inc said on Monday the department store chain will expand same day delivery services to nine cities and metropolitan areas this month, pushing into an aggressive field dominated by e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc .
Macy's, the nation's largest department store chain, said it will now offer same day delivery to customers in 17 markets including Atlanta, Boston and Las...

Israel - Amid an outpouring of grief, thousands attended the Monday night funeral of 16-year-old Shira Banki, who died on Sunday after being stabbed at last week’s Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem.
Banki, a high school student from Jerusalem, was buried at Kibbutz Nachshon cemetery, near Beit Shemesh, outside of the capital.
In an emotional eulogy, Banki’s parents, Milka and Uri, spoke of...

Tehran, Iran - Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched a political campaign ahead of February's parliamentary elections in what could prove a challenge to the moderates behind a landmark nuclear agreement reached last month.
Few expect a rerun of Ahmadinejad's surprise victory in the 2005 elections, which kicked off an eight-year presidency marked by confrontation with the...

Cleveland - Vincent Marotta, one of the co-founders of the iconic Mr. Coffee brand that helped revolutionize how Americans make their morning brew, died Saturday at his home in suburban Cleveland. He was 91.
Marotta and his business partner and high school friend Samuel Glazer turned Mr. Coffee into a household name after asking two engineers to create a drip brewing system like those found in...

Manchester, N.H. - The Republican Party's jam-packed presidential class faces off Monday night in New Hampshire, where more than a dozen White House hopefuls aim to warm up for the first full-fledged debate of the primary season.
The forum will bring together almost all of the 17 major Republican candidates for president for a debate-lite event, which — unlike Thursday's nationally televised...